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Letter

Nature Cell Biology 8, 957–962 (1 September 2006) | doi:10.1038/ncb1462

Yeast kinesin-8 depolymerizes microtubules in a length-dependent manner

Vladimir Varga , Jonne Helenius , Kozo Tanaka , Anthony A. Hyman , Tomoyuki U. Tanaka & Jonathon Howard

The microtubule cytoskeleton and the mitotic spindle are highly dynamic structures, yet their sizes are remarkably constant, thus indicating that the growth and shrinkage of their constituent microtubules are finely balanced. This balance is achieved, in part, through kinesin-8 proteins (such as Kip3p in budding yeast and KLP67A in Drosophila) that destabilize microtubules.